Werner A. König

Squidy: a zoomable design environment for natural user interfaces

We introduce the interaction library Squidy, which eases the design of natural user interfaces by unifying relevant frameworks and toolkits in a common library. Squidy provides a central design environment based on high-level visual data flow programming combined with zoomable user interface concepts. The user interface offers a simple visual language and a collection of ready-to-use devices, filters and interaction techniques. The concept of semantic zooming enables nevertheless access to more advanced functionality on demand. Thus, users are able to adjust the complexity of the user interface to their current need and knowledge.

Interactive Design of Multimodal User Interfaces

In contrast to the pioneers of multimodal interaction, e.g. Richard Bolt in the late seventies, today’s researchers can benefit from various existing hardware devices and software toolkits. Although these development tools are available, using them is still a great challenge, particularly in terms of their usability and their appropriateness to the actual design and research process. We present a three-part approach to supporting interaction designers and researchers in designing, developing, and evaluating novel interaction modalities including multimodal interfaces. First, we present a software architecture that enables the unification of a great variety of very heterogeneous device drivers and special-purpose toolkits in a common interaction library named “Squidy”. Second, we introduce a visual design environment that minimizes the threshold for its usage (ease-of-use) but scales well with increasing complexity (ceiling) by combining the concepts of semantic zooming with visual dataflow programming. Third, we not only support the interactive design and rapid prototyping of multimodal interfaces but also provide advanced development and debugging techniques to improve technical and conceptual solutions. In addition, we offer a test platform for controlled comparative evaluation studies as well as standard logging and analysis techniques for informing the subsequent design iteration. Squidy therefore supports the entire development lifecycle of multimodal interaction design, in both industry and research.

MedioVis – a user-centred library metadata browser

MedioVis is a visual information seeking system which was designed especially for library data. The objective target was to create a system which simplifies and optimizes the users information seeking process and thus further motivates the user to browse in the library stock. To enhance the motivation special attention was given to consider joy of use aspects during the design of the user interface. The primary user interface design is based on multiple coordinated views to offer a great variety of exploration possibilities in a direct-manipulative manner. To accomplish a self-explanatory usability of the system for non-expert users, the development was accompanied by continuous user tests with casual and regular library users. At the end of the development process a comprehensive summative evaluation was conducted, comparing efficiency and joy of use of the existing web-based catalogue system KOALA of the library of the University of Konstanz with the MedioVis system. The results of this comparative evaluation show a significant improvement of the efficiency of the information seeking process with the help of MedioVis. The users also rated MedioVis significantly better in all dimensions of its hedonic quality and appeal compared with KOALA.

HyperGrid - Accessing Complex Information Spaces

In this paper, we describe a new interaction and visualization concept for non-expert users to easily access complex heterogeneous information spaces. The HyperGrid combines well-known table visualizations with zoomable user interface concepts to provide a two-dimensional grid as an access tool to multi-dimensional and relational data. It allows the presentation of attributes of multiple data types, various modalities and various levels of detail in a compact and consistent visual structure. Our concept is illustrated by a use-case based on our experiences and evaluations from preceding projects in the field of visual information seeking systems.

Laserpointer-interaction between art and science

We employ Laserpointer-Interaction as an intuitive, direct and flexible interaction concept particularly for large, highresolution displays which enforce physical navigation. We therefore demonstrate general applicability and suitability by applying Laserpointer-Interaction to a wide range of domains -- from scientific applications and formal experiments to artistic installations for the broad public.

Erlebniszentriertes Design von E-Services am Beispiel einer Storytelling-App für touristische Attraktionen

Am Beispiel einer Storytelling-App zur Vermittlung von Informationen im touristischen Kontext stellt der Beitrag einen Designprozess zur Entwicklung von erlebniszentrierten E-Services vor. Dieser gewahrleistet die Integration des Wissens des Anbieters uber die Value Co-Creation-Prozesse der potentiellen Anwender des geplanten E-Services in die Konzeption und Programmierung der digitalen Dienstleistung. Der interdisziplinare Beitrag verknupft Erkenntnisse der Marketingforschung, der Informatik und der Erzahltheorie miteinander.

Storytelling App – jüdische Geschichte mobil erleben

Besucher kulturhistorischer Sehenswurdigkeiten mochten sich meist umfassend aber auch speziell zu bestimmten Details eines Denkmals informieren. Im Fall des judischen Friedhofs „Heiliger Sand“ in Worms werden Gastefuhrungen angeboten und eine Schautafel informiert am Eingang des Friedhofs. Dieses Angebot zeit- und ortsunabhangig zu erganzen und das individuelle Besuchererlebnis von Kulturtouristen zu verbessern, ist das Ziel der hierfur konzipierten Storytelling-App. Erganzend zu dieser praktischen Zielsetzung steht die Konzeption und Uberprufung der hier angewendeten narrativen Informationsvermittlung im Fokus. So werden die Besucher uber eine visuelle sowie auditive Ausgabe auf einem Rundweg uber den Friedhof begleitet und erzahlerisch in eine fiktive Geschichte einbezogen. Damit spricht die App die Besucher nicht nur intellektuell durch die Wiedergabe der reinen Fakten an, sondern soll das Besuchererlebnis durch Storytelling auch emotional anreichern.

Key to success: Using Zoomable UIs on Interactive Surfaces in Real-World Corporate Scenarios / Die Verwendung von ZUIs auf Interaktiven Oberflächen als Schlüssel zum Erfolg in realen Unternehmens-anwendungen

Zusammenfassung Zoombare Benutzerschnittstellen (ZUIs) sind in der Mensch-Computer Interaktion eine gereifte Idee. Dennoch konnte sich bislang kein “reines” ZUI als Oberflächenkonzept durchsetzen. Was sich aber beobachten lässt, ist die Tatsache, dass heutige Tablets und Touch Geräte im allgemeinen sehr viele Facetten von ZUIs aufgreifen und integrieren. In diesem Artikel präsentieren wir mit smartPerform ein zoombares Präsentationstoolkit, welches basierend auf den Forschungsarbeiten an der Universität Konstanz im Zusammenhang mit ZUIs kommerziell entwickelt wurde. Anhand von “bestpractice” Beispielen unserer Kunden zeigen wir das Potential von ZUIs im Zusammenhang mit interaktiven Oberflächen auf, insbesondere auch im Kontext von Distributed-Display Environments. Summary Zoomable User Interfaces (ZUIs) are a well-established idea for the design of human-computer interfaces. While the vision of a “true” ZUI in its stricter sense has not become reality yet, today’s tablets and touch devices feature many facets of zoomable user interfaces. In this article, we will present smartPerform, a zoomable presentation toolkit which has been commercially developed based on academic research on ZUIs at the University of Konstanz. By illustrating best practices from our customers, we will show that ZUIs are a particularly promising in combination with interactive surfaces and distributed display environments.